Farewell, Google Stadia; today is the streaming service's last hurrah, and while Google's response to the closure has been exemplary, a closure of this magnitude has unforeseen consequences. One of them is that streamer Colour, who loved Red Dead Online and had played more than 6,000 hours on Stadia, faces losing all of that (opens in new tab).

Their story prompted Rockstar to take action and implement a transfer feature (opens in new tab) that links RDO players' resources and XP to their Rockstar social accounts, from which they can access them on other platforms. This is a happy ending that is not usually possible in "Red Dead Redemption" games.

RDO streamers decided to bid farewell to Stadia's cowpoke in the last stream before the service ended, and Rockstar had another surprise in store. The publisher sent a large box and bag full of RDR2 goodies.

The main takeaway from this event was that I realized just how deft Rockstar is at merchandising. Most of the stuff I had never seen before, but the official store has everything from the predictable to the bizarre (opens in new tab). 75-pound candles in the shape of barrels, anyone?

The streamer package included a bunch of T-shirts, a 3D puzzle that forms in-game items like a sawed-off shotgun, a mouse pad, a mug, and yes, a barrel of candles. The only thing they didn't get was a USB charger in the shape of a stick of dynamite (opens in new tab), which is actually the single best item in the store ("Give your new fangled devices a recharge").

One of the amazing things about the closing of Stadia is that it has spawned such a very nice story. (The service will not be used much when it is gone, but the nicest thing is that in the last few days Google has released the last game of Stadia: opens in a new tab).